Course Introduction

Overview

This unit is an introduction to the material we’ll be covering throughout this program. You’ll also get to know a little bit about myself and the objectives and goals we are aiming for. The course is meant to be completed in order, as concepts from the previous units build on the next units. Most people who have taken this course so far complete it within 2-4 weeks, but it depends on the individual.

Each Unit has the following structure.

Lecture Video
PDF Homework
Audio Drills Practice
Supplementary Video

What To Expect

In the beginning, a lot of the concepts ahead will seem unfamiliar to you – and that’s okay. Take your time in the first days to figure out your own comfortable pace for the course. This is especially important if you have not done a program like this before.

As you work through the units, keep practicing the drills so your mouth becomes more familiar with these new movements. Once you progress through the course, you’ll feel more familiar with the exercises and training. You may still have a ways to go with your pronunciation, but you’ll still feel much more confident about it than when you began your first day of training.

Remember that progress occurs when you use the language by speaking the sounds rather than learning about the language by reading and writing.

Five Language Learning Life Lessons (Watch this First)

Course Objectives (Watch this First)

Homework

More Practice

Take some time to complete Homework #1
Familiarize yourself with the Drills Index of this course

Assets

Slide Deck

Open Language Q&A

Questions List

0:07 – What if I am bad with rhythm?

2:20 – What if I don’t have good social skills?

4:11 – What if I want to learn X language? (Not offered)

5:13 – Do I get to learn common errors of pronunciation in this course?

9:04 – Should I reduce my native accent before perfecting my X accent?

12:08 – Doesn’t song sometimes mangle pronunciation and/or grammar?

15:50 – Should I wait until the end of the course to learn more grammar/vocabulary?

19:00 – Can you point me to any resources that talk about the phonetic overlap between languages?

22:00 – What’s the average amount of time/effort I should dedicate to this course?

24:24 – How do I learn languages just by mimicking the sounds? I still need to know vocabulary and grammar, right?

27:43 – If I’ve already learned a lot by reading, can I still course-correct and re-learn by ear?

31:30 – How do you go about retaining all of this information?

33:35 – Is this kind of training that actors do?

35:49 – My hearing is starting to be impaired with age. Will this make it more difficult for me?

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